


Like Comparing Lemons and Oranges

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angsty Schmoop, Emotional Baggage, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Established Relationship, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Love, M/M, Male Slash, Memory Alteration, Past Abuse, Post-Series Pre-Movie, Sickfic, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 23:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10932216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: Barnaby Brooks, Jr. is sick. He remembers being good at taking care of himself when he's sick, but he also knows that his memories can't exactly be trusted anymore. Even so, he tries not to put Kotetsu to any trouble.Unfortunately, Kotetsu Kaburagi is his boyfriend now, and sometimes being put to trouble is exactly what boyfriends are for. Especially when it comes to picking you up off the floor when you faint dead away. Barnaby slowly starts to learn better. Kotetsu sees that he is aptly rewarded for it, and doesn't hesitate to fuss his boyfriend slowly back to health.





	Like Comparing Lemons and Oranges

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based off a stupid thing I did while sick as a kid. I figured that Barnaby, despite being an adult, would be exactly the kind of guy to do this exact same stupid thing...at least if he didn't remember ever learning any better.

Barnaby had always been blessed with reasonably good health. Of course his eyesight was terrible and he had plenty of breathing troubles, but he couldn’t remember many times he’d actually gotten _sick_.

Now he knew that this was, of course, part of the problem. However he’d taken care of himself during those times, or however Maverick had arranged for him to be taken care of, Barnaby couldn’t actually remember anymore. He was pretty sure that those memories he did have were fake, and hasty fakes at that. He was slowly learning to tell the difference.

However, that meant that times like now – times when the flu well and truly beat him senseless – were times he was utterly unprepared to deal with alone. Fortunately, Barnaby had someone around who wasn’t about to let him try. This fact was driven home to him anew when Barnaby’s vision swam back into focus, and he found himself laying on the kitchen floor, held up off the tiles by Kotetsu’s arm around him. His other hand was dabbing at Barnaby’s forehead with a wet cloth. It felt _amazing_. It felt so amazing that Barnaby almost didn’t notice the shadowed expression on his boyfriend’s face.

But he did notice, in the scant seconds before the fear dissipated like the clouds parting before the sun. “Hey,” Kotetsu murmured, resting the back of his hand against Barnaby’s cheek. Barnaby leaned into the touch dazedly. Funny, one of the things he’d always loved most about Kotetsu was how warm he was. Now his touch felt soft and cool. It was still pleasant, but strange. “You back with me?”

“Guess so,” Barnaby mumbled, his voice little more than a croak. He tried to wet his dry lips with a dry tongue, tried to focus further. His memories were hazy. He couldn’t remember how he’d come to be in the kitchen. “Why did you bring me in here? I was in bed before…”

He felt something clench tightly around his heart, hard and suffocating, when Kotetsu looked genuinely _upset_ in reply. “No,” he said, his voice shaking a little with suppressed emotions that Barnaby wasn’t remotely in a position to identify. “You weren’t. You came out into the living room and I didn’t even have time to hang up on Lloyds before you hit the floor. Bunny, what _happened_?”

“I…fainted?”

“And I lost five years off my life!”

Barnaby couldn’t meet Kotetsu’s gaze any longer. He looked away, swallowing down shame. At least it made a change of pace from the bile he’d been choking on for the past day and a half. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Silence reigned for what felt like an eternity. Then Barnaby felt Kotetsu brush some sweat-slicked hair back from his forehead. He felt Kotetsu kiss him there softly. Then he gasped to feel himself picked up in the older man’s arms. It was a little awkward, since Barnaby was a little taller. But Kotetsu was strong enough to make it work. Barnaby only hesitated a moment longer before clinging to him, burying his face in Kotetsu’s shoulder to try and block out the dizzily spinning world.

“I’m sorry, Bunny,” Kotetsu said, as he carried his boyfriend…somewhere. Hopefully back to bed. “I shouldn’t yell at you. Even when you did scare me half to death.”

“It’s okay,” Barnaby mumbled. Nothing much felt okay right now. But he was still too confused to be annoyed. “I just…I don’t remember fainting.”

“People usually don’t. Trust me, I’ll remember it enough for both of us.”

It turned out that Kotetsu was carrying him back to bed. Barnaby felt himself going limp with relief as he was settled back onto his mattress. Then again, perhaps that was just the exhaustion talking. He curled up, and pulled the pillow against his face.

Barnaby still wasn’t bleary enough to miss the sound of Kotetsu walking away, however. He lifted his head, feeling his stomach roil in panic this time. “W-Wait…”

Kotetsu was already reaching down to stroke his cheek. Barnaby closed his eyes and slumped back, soothed even before the older man spoke once more. “I’ll be right back, Bunny. I’m just going to get you a drink. You’re dry as a bone.” He clucked – actually _clucked_ with disapproval – and then Barnaby heard his footsteps retreating again. Kotetsu might have been gone for minutes or hours for all that Barnaby knew. Either way, when he was shaken back to awareness again, it was to find a cup being held in front of his face.

Barnaby needed no further encouragement. He didn’t even need to be told to sip rather than gulp. His stomach still felt like it would rebel at the slightest upset, but his mouth tasted foul and his throat was painfully dry. Kotetsu sat beside him with his free hand resting on Barnaby’s back, patiently tilting the cup for every sip until Barnaby shook his head.

The older hero sighed as he set the cup on the bedside table. “You got sick again, didn’t you? Without telling me?”

Barnaby genuinely had to struggle to remember, and later on would reflect what a comment that was on the sorry state of him that this didn’t even make him panic like it usually did. Like it usually should. “Yes.” He felt his cheeks flush. Maybe that wasn’t so bad right now. “It happened all of a sudden, but it wasn’t much. I thought I could get back to bed without bothering you.”

“That’s not the only reason you should have told me, silly Bunny.” Kotetsu’s tone was exasperated, but he eased the sting of that by combing his fingers through Barnaby’s sweat-damp hair. “You need to drink something after you throw up. Not just to wash out your mouth. Otherwise you dry up and pass out, and your poor partner has a heart attack.”

“I said I was sorry,” Barnaby mumbled, embarrassed.

“I know. And it’s okay now. You didn’t know. I thought you did, but I didn’t ask. A silly old man for a silly Bunny.”

The fingers through his hair felt blissfully good – a point of soft, steady pressure in an upsetting, off-balance world. Barnaby managed a pleased little hum, tilting his head a bit to let Kotetsu get behind his ears. He heard Kotetsu chuckle as he obliged. “I didn’t know your hair could get this straight.”

“You’ll get sick if you keep touching me.”

“Nah, I’m a tough old man. But hey, even if I do, that just means it’ll be your turn to lecture me some more.”

“Yeah. I’ll help if you get sick. But you won’t. So I’m glad.”

Barnaby was only half aware of what he was saying. His thoughts kept going fuzzy at the edges and sliding out of reach. It wouldn’t be so bad to sleep again, right? At least he couldn’t get sick in his sleep, could he? He wouldn’t be doing anything to upset his empty stomach, after all.

Kotetsu seemed to notice Barnaby was fading, and Barnaby let out a soft whine of disappointment when this made his fingers stop. “Hold up there, Bunny. Let’s get you some more water before you, ah…pass out again.”

“Mmkay.” His body already felt so heavy that Barnaby couldn’t imagine lifting his head again. His mouth, however, still tasted foul enough that he thought he could try to motivate himself. He wasn’t sure that water would do the job, honestly. He wanted something sweet and he wanted something cold and it was this tangled web of wanting that led Barnaby to mumble: “Want a popsicle.”

He wasn’t even entirely sure he’d voiced the wish out loud until Kotetsu replied, sounding cautious: “Do you have any popsicles?”

He had to think about this for far too long, before finally coming up with a most disappointing: “No.”

“Well, partner, I’ll tell you what. You drink some more water for me, then grab a nap, and I’ll head down to the corner and see about finding you some popsicles. I’ll be back so fast you won’t even have time to miss me!”

“Promise?”

He wanted something sweet to soothe his throat. But Barnaby also wanted Kotetsu _here_. He wanted more time to get used to having someone around to hold him and soothe him and care for him when he was sick and pathetic and weak. He didn’t want to be left alone to muddle through and force himself to be strong, as he knew he must have had to do before. And even after everything, the fear remained nestled in the darkest corner of his heart that Kotetsu might decide not to come back. Might decide to spare himself the trouble.

“Promise,” Kotetsu said, and Barnaby believed him. That made the fear a little easier to bear, enough so that he nodded and curled up in the blankets once more.

He was pretty sure that the last thing he was properly aware of was the door closing. Really, it felt as though he just blinked, and suddenly his television was on and there was a weight on the bed beside him.

Kotetsu was back. That was the thought that greeted Barnaby as he struggled to return to consciousness, and it was a struggle that was easier than it had been. Kotetsu was back, and comfortable, and even with his terrible eyesight he could see his boyfriend look over at him and smile. Even with his breathing troubles, he didn’t mind the way the air caught in his throat with such piercing, overwhelming relief.

Kotetsu was here. Kotetsu would stay. Barnaby didn’t just have to dream good things anymore to get through the bad times.

“Morning, sleepyhead.” Kotetsu leaned down to kiss his cheek. “What flavor do you want?”

He asked for orange, and he got it. Kotetsu had another lemon pop there with him while they watched a ridiculously cheesy action movie.


End file.
